L.A. Catholic

A Catholic Living with L.A.

Nov 4, 2010

Hi and hola, after a while away from the blog

Hi, hola, and thank you very, very much for checking in here.

For the last four months, since July, I've been not posting, because of extra pressures of trying to earn a living. But I'll try to post again sometimes, "like we did last summer" (did you ever hear of that dance craze song from the Sixties, "Let's Twist Again Like We Did Last Summer?").

But today is the Feast of St. Charles Borromeo, the patron saint of bishops, so let's ask this great saint to pray for all our intentions today and every day.

Jul 10, 2010

On Saturday 7 July 2007 Pope Benedict XVI issued an Apostolic Letter on the celebration of the Roman Rite according to the Missal of 1962. Click on this post's title for the unofficial Vatican Information Service translation of the official Latin text.

Here are resources for the Traditional Latin Mass:http://www.ewtn.com/liturgy/traditional/Resources.htm

It's great to hear from many sources that around the USA and the world, more and more seminarians and young priests are learning the Traditional Latin Mass / Extraordinary Form Mass.

It's also great to recall that Pope Benedict XVI has asked seminaries to teach Latin so seminarians will be able to say the Latin Mass and sing Gregorian Chant.

But as we know, many in our hierarchy and clergy had their formation in the 1960's and 1970's. Those were the worst "spirit [sic] of Vatican II" / "new [sic] theology" / loosey-goosey decades of dissent and "throw the baby out with the bath water" error.

Sadly, too many of those members of the hierarchy and clergy are still stuck in that remote, bygone, irrelevant era. They need to update themselves.

They need to see that young people have good ideas. They need to open their minds to new ideas, fresh ideas.

Our hierarchy and clergy need to drop their rigidity and their prejudices against the Latin Mass. They need to start learning about the Latin Mass and all it has to offer themselves and all our fellow Catholics.

They need to become more pastoral and start fostering the Latin Mass in their dioceses and their parishes.

Change is hard for some people. But our hierarchy and clergy need to stop being afraid of change. They need to try new things.

Jul 8, 2010

First off: Thank you very much for being faithful to this blogspot and for being patient with Ole Q for not posting for a couple of weeks. Now:

"You can't be Catholic and pro-abortion!" That's the slogan we see on the t-shirts of pro-life Catholic young people (and older ones, too).

Catholic young people, as a matter of fact, such as those noble young souls whom ushers a while back wouldn't let enter the Cathedral here (no, not St. Vibiana, which, sadly, is history) because they (the pro-lifers, not the ushers) wore those t-shirts.

(The powers that be finally did let the pro-life kids enter God's house that day.)

If memory serves, the usher fuss was at the not exactly edifying service in the Cathedral for the inauguration of pro-abortion, pro-homosexual-agenda Tony Villar, aka Antonio Villaraigosa, as our alcalde / mayor.

By the way, and it's neither here nor there, but far-left-wingers used to call presidential inaugurations in-hog-urations -- until they got one of their own, BHO, elected.

Anyway, pro-life teenagers who proclaim, "You can't be Catholic and pro-abortion!" now have some company: Archbishop Robert Carlson of St. Louis.

You can see what he said in his column in the July 6 issue of his newspaper, the St. Louis Review (click on this post's title). Here are excerpts:

"Since the first century, the Church has addressed the moral evil of abortion and the killing of a defenseless baby in the womb. People who are casual about the sin of abortion and who choose to view it as a political issue rather than the serious moral issue that it is are guilty of violating the Fifth Commandment.

"You cannot be 'pro-choice' (pro-abortion) and remain a Catholic in good standing. That's why the Church asks those who maintain this position not to receive holy Communion. We are not being mean or judgmental, we are simply acknowledging the fact that such a stance is objectively and seriously sinful and is radically inconsistent with the Christian way of life.

"The Fathers of the Second Vatican Council said, 'God, the Lord of life, has entrusted to men the noble mission of safeguarding life, and human life must be protected with the utmost care from the moment of conception: Abortion and infanticide are abominable crimes' ('Gaudium et Spes,' No. 51.3). "

So: "You cannot be 'pro-choice' (pro-abortion) and remain a Catholic in good standing."

Sure would be nice if every Ordinary of every See in the USA would say the same thing, no?

Jun 22, 2010

Anyone who truly cares about Hispanics in this country will start warning us that the Democrats and liberal Republicans are our mortal enemies

Far too many Americans, and especially Hispanics, think the Democrats and the liberal Republicans are their friends.

They need to hear otherwise; they need to hear reality, the truth.

No one can say any longer that the Democrats and the liberal Republicans are friends to Americans and to Hispanics in particular -- not that they ever could say that in the last nearly 40 years.

Everyone -- lay Catholics, religious, deacons, clergy, bishops -- needs to start telling people, openly and loudly and in no unmistakable terms, that the Democrats and the liberal Republicans are nothing less than their mortal enemies.

They are our mortal enemies because they promote and fund the abortions of our babies, and they promote the family-destroying homosexual takeover agenda.

We already knew that Obama, for example, is an abortion extremist.

We also knew that Obama, for example, is a homosexual-agenda extremist. But look at these two new proofs of that from just the past 30 days or so:

Yes, these are this year's Mother's Day and Father's Day presidential proclamations.

You will see that Obama has perverted each of these beloved national holidays. He has injected the homosexual takeover agenda into them.

He has done so by praising mothers and fathers, respectively, but including "two mothers" and "two fathers" among them.

That is sick.

Yes, all of us, lay Catholics, deacons, religious, clergy and bishops, will fail to do our duty to our fellow Americans, including Hispanics, if we do not give them the truth -- namely, that Democrats and liberal Republicans are threats to their babies, their families, their morality, their religious liberty, and their way of life.

His topic was, "What Does It Mean To be a Faithful Catholic Media Organization in the 21st Century?" (Click on this post's title.)

Bishop Zavala said:

"...I also do not think that we should...simply say that faithful Catholic media organizations are those who engage in apologetics to defend bishops at all costs. That is too simplistic and does not respect the intelligence of Catholics in North America. They deserve a Catholic media that takes a more nuanced perspective."

He also said:

"...I do not believe that faithful Catholic media organizations should present themselves as speaking for the Magisterium. Only the Magisterium can speak for the Magisterium. While this sounds self-evident, it bears saying because there appear to be some organizations who do not see this point."

But when the bishop said, "Only the Magisterium can speak for the Magisterium," did he mean that no one may ever quote from the Magisterium?

And if you quote from the Magisterium, are you really presenting yourself "as speaking for the Magisterium?" Seriously -- are Catholics to act as if the Magisterium is not for them to know about and discuss and find of relevance to the Church and the world?

Bishop Zavala also said:

“There was consistent agreement [among the bishops] that one aspect that is most alarming to us about media is when it becomes unchristian and hurtful to individuals. For example, we are particularly concerned about blogs that engage in attacks and hurtful, judgmental language.

"We are very troubled by blogs and other elements of media that assume the role of Magisterium and judge others in the Church. Such actions shatter the communion of the Church that we hold so precious.”

Now, I'd like to think that in mentioning "blogs that engage in attacks and hurtful, judgmental language" and "blogs and other elements...that assume the role of Magisterium and judge others in the Church," Bishop Zavala was talking about all the dissenters who pour vitriol, name-calling, mockery and false charges upon pro-orthodoxy, pro-Latin Mass and pro-life Catholics.

After all, there is no one who makes attacks, uses hurtful language, judges others and confers infallibility upon themselves (but not upon the Pope) more than liberal Catholics do.

I'm sure the bishop knows that when pro-Tradition and pro-life Catholics carefully point out blatant problems and urge faithfulness to the Magisterium as the solution, that is not being "judgmental" or "shattering communion." To do those things is not to judge the state of anyone's soul; and it is seeking to repair unity that dissenters have shattered.

All Catholic bloggers need to pray, to seek the inspiration and guidance of the Holy Spirit, and to proceed in charity, justice and truth.

God bless Bishop Zavala and all our bishops. We owe them obedience and love, and let's keep them all in our prayers. Amen!

Jun 16, 2010

Today's L.A. Times has a story (click on this post's title) about the release of Cardinal Roger Mahony's deposition from this past January 25 in the Michael Baker case.

The Times article reports this:

"Asked about confidential files kept by the archdiocese vicar for clergy prior to his arrival in Los Angeles in 1985, Mahony said he never looked into the dossiers of reported molestations by priests. He said he preferred to get acquainted with the clergy in his domain through personal interaction."

Jun 15, 2010

Archbishop Lennon of Cleveland is closing 50 parishes and their beautiful churches, as the L.A. Times reported (click on this post's title) yesterday.

The parishioners do not believe the archdiocese's claims that the closings are "necessary."

Cleveland's so-called ethnic parishes are being hardest hit. Their parishioners, many of them, are from Eastern Europe. Some are valiant Hungarian Freedom Fighters who fled Hungary after the Hungarian Revolution against the atheistic Communists in 1956.

What is wrong with this picture?

Mosques are going up across the USA.

Protestant Evangelicals get many Catholics to apostasize from the True Faith.

So do Protestant Pentecostals, sects, Buddhism, New Age.

They are growing. And how is our Catholic Church doing?

Our American Catholic hierarchy is finding any and every excuse to shut down our Catholic churches everywhere -- hundreds, by now. And our parochial schools. And our seminaries, including right here in our Archdiocese of Los Angeles.

Many of the closings around the USA are, and have been, of stable and even thriving parishes. These parishes typically have beautiful, majestic, traditional, and obviously Catholic churches -- exactly the kind that far too many in our hierarchy and clergy despise.

Bishops who close parishes claim they don't have enough money anymore. Why is there not enough money?

Well, the gargantuan sex abuse settlements, of course. But also...

Don't look now, but we have many fewer Catholics around than we used to, many fewer than we should have. Why?

Many Catholic bishops and many, many Catholic priests thought they were so smart and so trendy in 1968 when they publicly, and in their confessionals, defied Pope Paul VI and disobeyed his pro-life, pro-marriage, pro-woman, anti-contraception encyclical letter Humanae Vitae.

Now they, and we, are reaping the harsh and evil consequences of their aping the wicked way of the world and disregarding God's providence and plans for our well-being.

We have too few Catholics today. Unnaturally too few!

Countless Catholics contracept out of existence the children God plans to give them. Countless Catholics abort the children God gives them. They are endangering their souls with these sins.

Catholic pro-lifers prophetically warned, right from the start and all along, that this would happen if American Catholics disobeyed Humanae Vitae.

Catholic pro-lifers are right, but Catholic liberals never listen to them.

Our Church in America needs to make a formal apology to all Catholics for being pro-contraception, and to make a major push against contraception.

This is all the more urgent because so many Catholics coming here from other countries are liable to start endangering their souls by contracepting and aborting their children.

Things would start getting better if all Catholics trusted God and obeyed Catholic truth... and listened to pro-lifers.

Jun 6, 2010

Did you see the L.A. Times article (click on this post's title) last Wednesday about a May 26 three-page report from the L.A. District Attorney's office on the L.A. clergy abuse scandals?

The Times article says:

"In its eight-year investigation of sexual abuse by clergymen, Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley's office has found information suggesting possible 'criminal culpability' by leaders of the Los Angeles Catholic Archdiocese, but lacks enough evidence to bring charges, according to a memorandum released Tuesday...

"The document, written by the prosecutor who heads the investigation, William Hodgman, says statutes of limitations make the 'prospect of developing any criminal case' against archdiocese officials 'more and more remote with each passing day'...

"Archdiocese spokesman Tod Tamberg said in an e-mail that 'any suggestion of criminal conduct is totally false and without factual basis.'"

Cooley, by the way, is a candidate in the primary election this Tuesday. He wants to be the Republican nominee for California attorney general.

RealClearPolitics ran an AP article that was reporting on the L.A. Times article. The AP story is at: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/news/ap/us_news/2010/Jun/02/da__insufficient_evidence_found_to_charge_cardinal.html

May 24, 2010

This venerable prayer is on the great blogspot A Catholic Mom in Hawaii (click on this post's title):Prayer: Year for PriestsO Jesus, Eternal Priest;keep all Your priests within the shelter of YourSacred Heart, where none may harm them.Keep unstained their anointed handswhich daily touch Your Sacred Body.

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